Dateline: 06/07/99

The 1999 French Open will be remembered for producing some of the most exciting finals in tennis history. The men's singles, women's singles, and women's doubles finals featured quality play, surprising comebacks, close scores, historic milestones, and powerful personal dramas.

In the men's singles final, Andre Agassi came back from two sets down to defeat Andrei Medvedev and become only the fifth man in history to complete a career Grand Slam. Medvedev dominated the first two sets, but Agassi picked up his level of play in the third and began attacking more at net. Medvedev's play slipped slightly, but the match remained highly competitive right to the end. Agassi gave a deeply emotional speech on accepting the trophy, then Medvedev followed with a strikingly thoughtful address. Medvedev, though disappointed not to have won, revived a career that had been on the brink of ending, improving his ranking from 100th in the world to somewhere in the twenties by virtue of his French Open performance.

In the women's singles final, Steffi Graf came back from a set and 4-5 down to Martina Hingis to win her first Grand Slam in almost three years. Adding to the drama of this well-played match was the crowd's intense support for Graf and disapproval of Hingis. I thought the crowd was unduly harsh toward Hingis, but others disagree. It seemed especially unfair that the crowd subjected Hingis to prolonged booing when she used an underhand serve to save a match point. An underhand serve has a long legacy in tennis, and I never hear anything but fond recollection of Michael Chang's use of the same shot in the 1989 French Open. Hingis, deeply upset by the crowd and the loss, sobbed in her mother's arms after the match. Graf surprised everyone by saying that she treasured this victory so much, she would preserve the memory by never playing the French Open again.

The women's doubles final produced the first Grand Slam sister champions in this century as Venus and Serena Williams overpowered Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova in a tough three-set match. The Williams sisters were up 5-1 in the second set, then Hingis and Kournikova dug in to force a third set in which Kournikova had a chance to serve it out. Kournikova's shaky serve proved too vulnerable to the powerful returns from the Williams pair, and she threw in a few key double faults as well. Hingis held up, though, despite her hurtful loss the day before. The Williams sisters showed more than just tremendous power, with a couple of perfect topspin lobs from Serena and some very quick poaching from Venus.

The men's doubles final, although less dramatic, did produce two new Grand Slam champions, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who overcame Goran Ivanesevic and Jeff Tarango in two sets.